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Posts Tagged ‘stories’

There are times when I wish I lived in New York or at least near it and this is one of those times. Clearly last year was not my best and somehow I missed this little piece of scary news. There is a new, well new as in October of 2010, Off-Broadway thriller called Play Dead. It is co-written and directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and co-written & performed by Todd Robbins. I have always been a magic geek. I know dumb, but I love trying to figure out how everything is done. Penn & Teller are great, but Teller is the mastermind in my opinion and Penn is the showman and comedian. Since Teller is one of the minds behind this I just have to find a way to see it. Maybe it’ll go on the road? Judging by reviews and the website it is very difficult to describe what this play is about. Without having seen it yet, I hesitate to try and describe it. Here is a blurb from the site.

“Teller and Todd Robbins invite Death out to play in PLAY DEAD, a new spirit-shaking Off-Broadway show inspired by “Midnight Spook Shows,” an American institution from the 1930s to the 1970s. As the guide for the evening, Robbins draws audiences into an unknown haunted world full of frightful surprises and diabolical laughter. Although very much a theatrical work, it is hardly a typical “play,” but rather a dramatic, unnerving thriller – here and now in an “abandoned” theater, illuminated by a single ghostlight – in which audiences test their nerves and face their fears as they are surrounded by ethereal sights, sounds and even touches of the returning dead – all achieved by wry, suspenseful storytelling and uncanny stage illusions.”

One reviewer said that it’s basically true ghost stories told in a seance setting where things happen to the audience. Apparently the majority of the play/performance happens in complete darkness. It’s gotten rave reviews. Sounds like something right down my dark alley.

I got this great book from a friend and just have to share. It’s called Grimmer Tales: A Wicked Collection of Happily Never After Stories. It’s brilliantly written and illustrated by Erik Bergstrom. Grimmer Tales is basically a collection of all of your favorite sappy fairy tales and nursery rhymes, but with the sick twist that they all desperately needed. This book will show you what really happened when Jack ate the magic beans and when a giant found the shoe that the old woman and her kids lived in. Prepare to laugh your ass off or, if you’re uptight, to be apalled.